Limo service in London, Ontario

The Forest City, between two airports and two borders

London sits in the middle of south-western Ontario, two hours from Toronto Pearson to the east and two hours from Detroit to the west, with its own airport on the city's edge for the Toronto, Calgary and sun flights. That geography decides its chauffeur bookings: the London airport transfer is fifteen minutes and the reason to book it is the 5 am departure and the midnight arrival; the Pearson and Detroit transfers are two hours each and the reason to book them is the fixed fare on a 401 that is the busiest truck route in the country. Add Western University and Fanshawe College's calendars, the hospitals that make the city a regional medical centre, the insurers and the banks on Dundas Street, Budweiser Gardens' hockey and concerts, and the Stratford Festival forty-five minutes north, and you have the market. We run the full service across London, St. Thomas, Strathroy and Woodstock: the airport transfers, the corporate account, the hourly chauffeur, the convocations and the cross-border runs to Detroit.

Three airports, and which to use

London International (YXU) on the city's east side is ten kilometres from downtown and fifteen minutes on Oxford Street or the Veterans Memorial Parkway, a small terminal with the pre-arranged pickup at the arrivals doors and a chauffeur who texts the plate; Air Canada and WestJet's Toronto and Calgary flights and the winter sun charters use it, and thirty minutes of waiting are included on a domestic arrival and sixty on an international one. Pearson (YYZ) is a hundred and ninety kilometres east on the 401, two hours off-peak and two and a half in the evening rush; the Pearson page covers the terminals and the engine works the pickup back from the flight with the 401's hours built in. Detroit Metropolitan (DTW) is two hours west via the 401 and the Ambassador or Gordie Howe bridges on the cross-border service, and for Londoners chasing US fares it is the airport that saves the most.

Downtown, Old North, Byron and the neighbourhoods

Downtown's Dundas Street and Richmond Row hold the offices, the restaurants and Budweiser Gardens; Old North and the university district along Richmond hold Western and the older houses; Wortley Village south of the river is the village; Byron and Oakridge to the west, Masonville and the north for the residential pickups; the hospital corridor along Wellington Road and the University Hospital on the campus. St. Thomas twenty minutes south, Strathroy thirty minutes west and Woodstock forty minutes east on the 401 price on the same engine, and the Ontario page covers the province beyond.

Western, Fanshawe and the calendar

Western University's forty thousand students arrive every September and leave every April through London's airport and Pearson, and the family booking - a Luxury SUV from Pearson to the residence with the boxes, a Premium Sedan to the June convocation at Alumni Hall with the grandparents - is the prom and graduation page's London entry; Fanshawe College's convocations follow. Homecoming in October fills the Richmond Row bars and the Sprinters; the Thames Valley board's proms in June fill the stretch limousines. Western's campus roads close for the convocations and the chauffeurs know the drop-off.

The corporate and medical city

The insurers and the banks headquartered on Dundas and along the 401 corridor, the food and manufacturing companies in the east end, the tech firms in the downtown core, the automotive plants in St. Thomas and Ingersoll: the corporate accounts book the airport transfers to all three fields and the hourly chauffeur for the day across the region. The hospitals - University Hospital, Victoria Hospital and St. Joseph's - make London a referral centre for the whole of south-western Ontario, and the patient's day of appointments, or the family's drive from Sarnia or Windsor for a specialist, is the medical booking the city is known for.

Budweiser Gardens, the Grand and the venues

Budweiser Gardens downtown for the Knights and the concerts - a Memorial Cup year is the city's biggest fortnight - with the pre-arranged pickup at the hotel forecourts on the Dundas side; the Grand Theatre for the plays; Centennial Hall for the orchestra; the Western Fair District for the fair in September and the racing; TD Stadium at Western for the Mustangs. The sporting events and nights out pages cover the pickup arrangements. Sunfest in Victoria Park in July, Rock the Park, the Home County Music and Art Festival and the Ribfest fill the summer's downtown weekends.

Stratford, the theatre and the day out

The Stratford Festival is forty-five minutes north on Highway 7 and the matinee-and-dinner day is a city-to-city booking with the chauffeur waiting through the performance; Port Stanley's beach on Lake Erie is thirty minutes south; Grand Bend on Lake Huron is an hour north-west for the summer weekend; the wineries of the Lake Erie north shore an hour south-west. Toronto is two hours, Kitchener-Waterloo ninety minutes, Windsor two hours, all at fixed fares with the return built in.

Detroit and the border

The Ambassador Bridge and the Gordie Howe International Bridge put Detroit two hours from London, and the trips are the airport at DTW, the Lions, the Tigers and the Red Wings on game day, the Henry Ford museum, and the onward drive to Chicago. Port Huron via the Blue Water Bridge at Sarnia is the other crossing, an hour west. Every passenger needs a passport or a NEXUS card; the cross-border page covers the trip and the documents, and the CBSA the exemptions on the way home.

Traffic, weather and the honest drive times

The 401 east to Toronto and west to Windsor is the road and it carries more trucks than any highway in the country; the 402 to Sarnia and the 403 to Hamilton branch from it; inside the city Wellington Road, Wonderland Road and Oxford Street are the slow points at both rush hours. Winter is the snowbelt's: London sits in the lake-effect band off Lake Huron and a January squall can close the 401 between London and Woodstock for an afternoon, which is why the fixed fare to Pearson is booked with a margin. Ontario 511 is what dispatch reads. The honest figures: downtown to YXU in fifteen minutes; to Pearson in two hours at 6 am and two and a half at 5 pm; to Detroit in two hours plus the bridge.

Hotels and the drop-off

The Delta Armouries and the DoubleTree downtown, the Park Hotel and the Hilton on Richmond, the Idlewyld Inn in Old South, the Windermere Manor at Western for the convocation weekend, the Best Western Lamplighter for the wedding block, and the hotels by the airport on Oxford Street: the chauffeurs know each forecourt, and the travel desk books the room.

What a limo costs in London

Fixed by the addresses and the vehicle class, shown before you book. Downtown to YXU in an Executive Sedan is a short fare; Pearson and Detroit are two-hour corridor fares priced by the distance honestly; the Stratford day and the Homecoming night are priced by the hour with a minimum. No surge on a Memorial Cup night, no meter, no gratuity added. The fleet page has the capacities.

Weddings in the Forest City

The churches of Old North, the Delta Armouries and the Windermere Manor, the Elmhurst Inn in Ingersoll, the Bellamere and the vineyard estates south of the city, and the barns of Middlesex County: London's weddings are country weddings with a city's hotels, and the wedding page covers the plan with the guest shuttle from the downtown hotels to a country venue as the piece that matters most. Summer Saturdays book by March.

Two questions Londoners ask the desk

Pearson or London airport? If the fare and the schedule are close, London: fifteen minutes instead of two hours, and the terminal is a five-minute walk. Is Detroit really worth it for the fares? Often, for the US routes; two hours plus the bridge, and the chauffeur reads the CBP wait times to choose it. A third, asked every September: the Homecoming Saturday's Sprinters are booked by the end of August.

A Pearson transfer in a January squall, worked through

A Tuesday 7 pm departure from Terminal 3 for a couple in Old North, booked with the flight number in December. Dispatch reads Ontario 511 at noon and sees the lake-effect band forecast across the 401 at Woodstock for the afternoon; the engine's suggested pickup of 3:30 becomes a phone call and a 2:45 pickup, which the couple accept. The Luxury SUV's winter tyres take the 401 through the squall at Ingersoll at a chauffeur's pace, the highway clears at Cambridge, and the departures curb at Terminal 3 is reached at 5:20 - an hour and forty minutes before the flight rather than the two hours the airline asks, which the chauffeur has already told the couple is the trade for the squall. The fare is the one on December's confirmation; the alternative was a drive they would not have wanted to make.

The medical referral run

London's hospitals draw patients from Sarnia, Windsor, Chatham, Stratford and Owen Sound for specialists, and the family's drive to University Hospital for a 9 am appointment and back the same afternoon is a city-to-city round trip with the chauffeur waiting, or an hourly chauffeur when there are two appointments and a lunch. The hospital entrances a pre-arranged car may use are on the desk's file, and the corporate account covers the health authority's own visiting staff.

Port Stanley, Grand Bend and the summer

Port Stanley's beach and harbour on Lake Erie are thirty minutes south and the summer's Sunday; Grand Bend's beach on Lake Huron an hour north-west and the summer's Saturday, with a road home that is the province's slowest at 6 pm on a July weekend; the Pinery and the Lake Erie wineries fill the rest. The SUV for the family, the Sprinter for the group, priced as a round trip with the chauffeur waiting. Tourism London's calendar has the festivals' dates.

Book a London chauffeur